Cogliano said the Sagamore project is receiving great scrutiny, but that virtually all major highway projects cost more than the construction estimate, after other costs are included. The recently completed Route 44 reconstruction project was estimated to be $80 million, for example, but its actual cost was $120 million, Cogliano said.
 

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Boston Globe, The (MA)
April 2, 2004
SAGAMORE OVERPASS PLAN IS REVIVED
LAWMAKERS READY TO BRING PROJECT TO VOTE
Author: Anthony Flint, and Raphael Lewis, GLOBE STAFF
Section: Metro/Region
Page: B1

State lawmakers said yesterday they will revive Governor Mitt Romney's plan to build a bypass over the Sagamore rotary, despite a new cost estimate that pegs the project at $58.3 million, a $23 million jump from earlier figures.

Reversing course from just two weeks ago, the lawmakers said they would drop their demand that the project be studied further and instead bring it to a vote in the Transportation Committee.

"I'm certainly not looking to kill the project," said Representative Joseph Wagner, Democrat of Chicopee and cochairman of the Transportation Committee, which voted for further study in part because of concerns about the cost.

Wagner would not say how he would vote on the project, but the Senate chairman of the committee, Steven A. Baddour, Democrat of Methuen, said he supported the project and would seek to get it back on track.

If the Legislature passes the bill before the summer recess, construction could start later this year, to meet a targeted 2006 completion date.

The resuscitation of the Sagamore rotary flyover - an elevated highway linking Route 3 and the Sagamore Bridge, allowing drivers to skip the accident- and delay-prone rotary - came after testimony at the State House yesterday by John Cogliano, commissioner of the Massachusetts Highway Department, detailing actual costs.

The estimated cost of building the flyover is $35.2 million, Cogliano said. But other costs - land acquisitions, building relocations, design, administrative costs, and police details - add $23 million.

Cogliano detailed the cost yesterday at the demand of lawmakers. He explained that when state officials talk about the price tag for a major highway project they generally mean only the construction cost. But every project has additional costs, he said.

In this case, those extra costs are: a $3.7 million contingency fund, $1.3 million for police details, $6 million for design, a feasibility study and "construction advice," and $1.8 million for construction inspection and state administrative costs. An additional $10.2 million is anticipated for property acquisition, relocation, and construction of new and re located buildings, including the fire station, a new state highway depot, and a visitors center.

Cogliano said he wasn't trying to hide any costs, although he said in an interview two weeks ago that the project "would not be $60 million or $70 million or $80 million." He said that if additional costs were included in the price tag of highway projects, "it would change the whole dynamic of every project we've ever done."

Wagner said he appreciated the full disclosure, which he said was the first time additional costs had been presented to him.

"I had legitimate concerns about cost," he said. "There was some sense, publicly, that the cost was $35 million. That is not the case; it's closer to $60 million, and it appears that number represents the floor. But it was a much more thorough presentation on budget costs than I've seen."

He added that the cost of land-taking could increase through litigation and that design costs of the project had increased significantly since December. He said he was also skeptical that construction costs would remain steady, given recent increases in fuel prices.

"We're going to bring the bill back to committee," Wagner said. "I'm going to reserve any comment on the action I will take."

Baddour, however, said he supported the project, after getting a tour from Senator Therese Murray, Democrat of Plymouth. He denied that his support had anything to do with Murray's anticipated reelection fight this fall against a well-heeled Republican candidate.

"Our motives are not political; we need answers to legitimate questions," Baddour said, noting that the actual $58.3 million cost of the project was not a "showstopper."

Typically the administration asks the Legislature to authorize funding for transportation projects, and lawmakers either vote yes or no. The Legislature had more leverage in this case because it must also sign off on use of a 1.3-acre parcel of open space that will be the site of a relocated fire station.

Romney has identified the Sagamore rotary project as a top priority and said last year that "if I couldn't get that fixed, I'd have to resign in shame."

The governor said people and trucks headed to and from the Cape should not have to wait in backups on Route 3 and that eliminating the rotary would fix an obvious bottleneck.

Cogliano said the Sagamore project is receiving great scrutiny, but that virtually all major highway projects cost more than the construction estimate, after other costs are included. The recently completed Route 44 reconstruction project was estimated to be $80 million, for example, but its actual cost was $120 million, Cogliano said.

Anthony Flint can be reached at flint@globe.com.